O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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I have to say its a good omen to see that the tree that was dying on O’Connell Street was replaced promptly. Some of the other non-sculptured trees have died quite quickly and have been since removed – Possibly these trees couldn’t survive on the street.
Saw the Luas cut the street today for first time – nice addition.
All the enthusiasm for O’Connell Street, but hold on to your horses folks. Has any one seen Henry Street lately. The £2 million makeover of this street just a few years back heralded the same optimism but since then the street has become rather shoddy. Anyone notice that the contemporary design steel bins that matched the lighting and banner masts have been replaced with the old black cast iron Victorian pastiche styled bins. Also has anyone one noticed the missing paving slabs in places due to roadworks. At the entrance to GPO arcade there is a large crater sloppily filled in with a dollop of tar. Will the same fate befall O’Connell Street. Dublin City Council is slacking.
Yes, the aul dollop of tar, can’t beat it, very Irish disease!!
Henry Street looks awful, not as bad as Liffey Street though, Yikes!!!
‘street’ – good one!
If the whole place fell into a big hole overnight you wouldn’t miss it – in fact it would just make it easier to get to the Ha’penny.On Henry St the new shiny bollards outside Roches have been shoved into the ground with a dollop of redish cement around the base which is very messy. And as for the plague of chewing gum.
Still like the paving colour here though – the red and grey works very well.i thought that talbot street had its period of renewal a couple of years ago?
but ive noticed on many streets if you look up, which ya rarely do, there many nicely ornate builfings with all their paint peeling off?
like that shop whats it called the one with the demin and leather nad the blue building above it and then the grey building across the road above the alcove
Talbot Street is a difficult one, there are some absolute gems on the Street and some horror stories, Mallmart was one one of them I think.
I am hopeful for Talbot St I think that the move of Independent News Papers in addition to the existing BOI Int treasury offices should help greatly.
The bar at the corner of Store St has a lot of potential if under the right management, I think that above all else is what the area needs are a few good night time uses. I think that Capel St has done very well with bars over the last few years I think a few in Talbot St would do O’Connell St no harm at all.
except that the indo’s proposed building looks like a heap of crap …
Agreed from an urban design view point it will not be winning awards.
But from a land use perspective it has two effects, firstly it extends the office use back towards O’Connell St (from the IFSC cluster) providing a customer base for local business in what I think all will agree is sadly quite a run down area.
Secondly it provides a substantial building in the retail core of the O’Connell St-Abbey St- Gpo arcade area. If handled right it could prove a shot of adreneline to the area, has anyone ever noticed just how poorly utilised that Williams lane is (between the Gpo arcade and Spirit on Middle Abbey St)
Yes – indeed I only found out this lane existed quite recently!
What building are the Indo moving into on Talbot – is it the sleep-inducing red brick just being completed? At least it’s better than the BOI – if I see another polished granite slab in this city…It’s good to see some investment being made in the street – I think the CC refurbishd the place in 1997, when the maze of islands and trees etc were introduced, but it has deteriorated rapidly.
Anyone have a pic of what’s replacing Mall Mart – there’s some bricks peeking through anyway.All this new streetscape development in Ireland is going to waste – we can build them but can’t maintain them ! The only exception is the Boardwalk, which generally speaking is clean and tidy.
Yeh, what and where is the new Indo building ??????
I’m wondering what was the thinking in putting the cycle lane on the inside of the street when conventional wisdom is that cyclists use the left hand side of the road when cycling.
I’ve noticed a number of cyclists getting elbowed dangerously off the street just as the old road layout meets the new. This happens with the new cycle lane on the inside of the street causing the traffic to veer over to the left, leaving nought space for yer man on his puch bike.
In hindsight it would have made sense to have cycle lanes on both sides given the amply space available. Or is the plan for cyclists to use the footpaths as on the continent, in which case I hope the Garda are informed so as they wont be wasting their valuable time annoying cyclists instead of wasting their time in otherways.
That’s a good point about the layout – I dread to think what it’s like trying to cross sides from the quays or bridge onto the street layout.
Perhaps the lanes were laid out along the median as there is much less potential pedestrian conflict along here, and no side street junctions breaking the lanes.Interesting photograph of the street here from 1858 – one of the earliest photos of a street scene in the city. Must have been taken on a Sunday morning or something as the place is deserted. It’s spooky to see the ghostly shadows of the GPO lanterns – the only photo I’ve ever seen of them. The Union Jack is flying proudly above too 🙂
And the width of the roadway unobstructed by any median makes you wonder just how an impressive a space this must have been compared with all the other city streets – literally just acres of empty (and filthy) space. It does serve to demonstrate though just how important decent paving was at the time.Graham, was sackville street just a dirt road or was there proper paving? Looks like a mud track in that picture.
What is it about Liffey Street? There’s just no atmosphere. If you knocked everything down and started again it would probably be the same.
But there’s a nice new building in the mews lane Lotts. You get a slanting view of it as you’re walking along Liffey Street. The combination of white render and pre-patinated copper parts look good. I believe the building at the corner with the old handmade brick will be restored as part of the scheme. Wooden sash windows will replace the current aluminium ones.
Always to be welcomed!
The paving on this street is the best ever – its condition has to be a joke on the part of the CC, truly unbelievably bad (not that the Luas works helped). But think it’s the parapet level of the street that’s the main problem, in that – well, there isn’t one! There’s very little definition of space. Even a few trees at street level would help no end.
About O’Connell St Morlan, I’ve always wondered about the street surface – certainly by the 1890s the street was cobbled, or at least parts of it, but in countless earlier photos the road surface is burned out in the sun and impossible to identify. And all sketches, paintings and engravings I’ve seen just depict a muddy brown suface, probably cause their creators couldn’t be bothered drawing half a million cobble stones! Perhaps someone has an early pic of some kind that does show cobbles.
Here’s one from Google depicting the bridge and street in what looks like around 1893-1900. The bridge is blatently cobbled over anyway.
Interesting to see Eddie Rockets apparently under construction over to the left – certainly there’s something going on!
Anyone know who the statue is of at the botton of the pic? Always wondered why he faces that weird angle, is it to line up with D’Olier St? Also the bollards surrounding the statue are nearly identical to those near Parnell at the top end of the street. Was there a statue up there too originally?The statue is of John Gray (I think) its the same one that is now at the junction with Abbey Street.
Re the bicycle lanes: these were placed on alongside the median to prevent cycle traffic being interfered with by buses pulling in and out of stops. As a cyclist I dont think it works at all. Most people ignore it and I guess the fact that the lane is incomplete doesnt help.
Also we can now see just why the street will take another two years to complete…. just look at how long it is taking to pave that small median between the bridge and Abbey St. Its ridiculous. Part of the stage will be the constuction of three new kiosks – one on the centre median and two on the sidewalks. Could this be the reason for the removal of the two trees infront of Irish Permanent.
What person in their right mind decided to plant those trees where they were, likewise regarding the matching specimens on the other side of the street. They served no purpose whatsoever, indeed they concealed the finest terrace on the street, and negated the impact of the median sweep of trees which had just been finally consolidated at the same time as their planting. And they were ugly!
It’ll be interesting to see how this lower section of the street is handled during construction, notably how the new double-width pavements somehow funnel pedestrians onto the single-width bridge pavements – people will end up in the middle of the road!(indeed it happens as it is)
Thanks for John Gray Stephen, I thought the plinth looked very similar – but then most of them are! Comparing the two it becomes evident:
Hang on – his folded arm is on the wrong side!
Either he had a transplant or it ain’t him! It’s almost identical though – weird. It’s not William M Murphy is it?well sorry to dissapoint everyone but is it not clear that the stretch from Abbey Street to O’Connell Bridge will NOT have widened footpaths?! They are laying new granite at junctions with abbey street – it is clear from this that the narrow paths will remain.
I have to be honest and now say the redevelopment of o’connell st is not wonderful – it is rather just about catching up with other streets in terms of design. Its an ok job- not a world beater. One way they could improve the street would be through the lighting up of all statues at night-time. Especially the O’Connell Monument – a magnificent monument in its own right.
As for the Savoy redeveloment, the inside is ok, but the plates of tin behind the new sign are rather shabby and crude (screws sticking out of plates, some plates are even crooked!) The Corpo (sorry, city council) should not allow such crap. Obviously the controls on O’Connell Street are either ineffective or unenforced…Then there’s Dr Quirkey’s… 🙁
Finally, one more rant (!) The collumns on the Eden Quay side of the Irish Nationwide Building are falling apart at ground level!! Some of the brass bases on the ground floor elevation are missing and some pillasters are collapsing!!! COUNCIL INTERVENE FOR GOD SAKE!!!
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